1. Field of Use
The present invention relates to hand tools and methods for forming component leads and more particularly, to a tool and method for forming the leads of electrode components mounted on a printed circuit board.
2. Prior Art
When ceramic component devices are manufactured such as a ceramic disk capacitors, LEDs etc., such devices have a certain amount of component material deposited around their leads, called meniscus. Each such component is required to be vertically mounted in plated through holes of a printed circuit board and then soldered in place during the board fabrication. It is important that the meniscus be prevented from entering the circuit board hole area in order to insure good solderability of the component.
To insure good solderability of such components, one technique employed is to apply sleeving on the device's pair of leads to form a barrier to keep the meniscus out of the hole. This operation is very costly to perform. For example, it has been determined that the amount of time required to put sleeves on the pair of leads of a single component is the same amount of time as that required to put the component on the board.
Another technique which could be employed involves the use of automatic lead forming equipment to perform a lead forming operation on the component leads. Such equipment requires that the components be contained on a component tape mounted on a reel wherein the placement of components on the tape allows the automatic tool to hold the component in place while the forming tool is in operation. To implement this operation is necessary to add a preform and cut operation prior to the assembly operation of the board fabrication process. This can prove both time consuming and costly in terms of having to purchase component parts in that form which may not be justified in cases of low volume manufacture. Further, since not every board of a product may be identical, it may not be possible to perform the required lead forming operation on all product boards in the same manner.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a tool and method for forming the pair of leads of a component which is vertically mounted on a printed circuit board.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a tool and method of performing a forming operation on vertically mounted printed circuit board components within a minimum time and expense.